The Election Commission (EC) will not include the biometric system and indelible ink in its training for polling clerks for the next general election.

According to EC secretary Kamaruddin Baria, this is because no decision has been made on whether these methods will be used.

azlan “We will call (the polling clerks) back, if need be, once a decision is made,” he said.

More training is likely to be required if the commission decides to use the biometric system as it is more complicated.

“The ink is a lot easier,” Kamaruddin said.

Training for clerks and returning officers began in Selangor today, with other states to follow.

EC chief Abdul Aziz Mohd Yusof had told media earlier that the commission is mulling over using either indelible ink, the biometric system, or both, in the next general election to counter claims of phantom voters.

He said the EC had conducted a dry run to test the biometric system and found that the average time per person for 50 people is 10 seconds.

However, Abdul Aziz said, there were some problems encountered during the dry run, where the machine could not detect some people’s fingerprints.

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